From Walden

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

Week one

Greetings from Fiji!

Week one is down and I'm in an internet cafe on Viti Levu.  I'm staying with a host family and spending much of my day in language and skills classes.  It takes about half an hour to get here into town to use the internet so I haven't had much chance to update.  I'm also using internet at a cafe so I don't have my computer.  I will work on setting up a skype session for some time next week.  I will also try to type a note and bring it in on a flash drive next week, although I hear that can be a good way to get viruses. 

On an interesting note-- I was switched to Integrated Environmental Resource Management instead of Health Promotion!

Staging

We are in Los Angelos now.  After some flight drama and a reroute to Minnesota,  I got to our hotel yesterday afternoon.  The trainees were fortunate to catch a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and we're actually staying at a really nice place.  After settling down in my room, I met up with a trainee that had shared the bus with me and we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the lobby and greeting folks as they arrived.

I was one of the few trainees that had a room to myself- which was frankly really odd.  I hadn't realized before that I've never stayed in a hotel by myself and I found that I was really lonely!

Today was full of icebreakers and information on basic policy.  We've been off since 3:30 and there will be two busses coming at 6:30 to take us to the airport.  Our flight takes off at 11:30, so I think a handful of us will be having a drink or two at the airport to help us sleep.

Can't wait- I'll be in Fiji tomorrow!  And yeah, Jordan, I will work on updating frequently ;)

The last week

I'm down to my final week stateside.  I've packed my bags, and I have most of my room packed.  Now it's just eating my favorite meals, counting the minutes and saying goodbye.  Monday I will be flying out at 7 am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Monday evening will be my official registration and Tuesday is scheduled for orientation most of the day.  I'll be flying out from LAX at 11:30pm Tuesday, and we'll land in Suva at 5:30 Thursday.  It's only a 10 hour flight, but we will be crossing the international date line along the way so there's just a touch of time travel in it for good measure ;)

Boom de ah dah!

I love the whole world!

love the mountains, I love the clear blue skies
I love big bridges, I love when great whites fly
I love the whole world, and all its sights and sounds
Boom-de-ah-dah, Boom-de-ah-dah,

I love the oceans, I love real dirty things
I love to go fast, I love egyptian kings
I love the whole world, and all its craziness
Boom-de-ah-dah, Boom-de-ah-dah,

I love tornadoes, I love arachanids
I love hot magma, I love the giant squids
I love the whole world, it's such a brilliant place
Boom-de-ah-dah, Boom-de-ah-dah,

Four Weeks to Go!

My mother keeps asking me if I plan on keeping this blog up after I've gone.  I'm thinking it's because I haven't written in so long.  Well geez, mom- maybe if I had some free time every once in a while I'd post! :P

Not much to say about my imminent departure.  I get a little urge each day to start packing, but I think if I start now, my stuff will just get musty and I'll spend the next 26 days wondering,  "Now... where did I put that shirt?!"

I do have to thank Mr. Will (Who will likely never read this blog- it not being public and all.  I might have to change that.) for his generous donation to my traveling do-gooder campaign.  From him I have received a sweet internal frame backpack, which I'm hoping will carry all of my worldly possessions for the next couple of years.  I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I will only need to bring one bag.

Assignment

I've just purchased The Rough Guide to Fiji by Ian Osborn for my Kindle.  Can't wait to read it and find out about some of the great adventures I could be having!

I've been assigned to a position as a Health Promoter in the Community Health Promotion Project (CHP).  The purpose of the CHP project is to assist all citizens of Fiji to improve their health status through increased health knowledge, better decision-making abilities, public health outreach programs, and improved access to health services.  This is accomplished through the project's four goals:

1. Fijian household members will have increased health knowledge, skills and attitudes, which will lead them to make healthier lifestyle choices.
2. Health and youth service providers will have increased capacity to conduct health promotion campaigns and provide improved services to the community.
3. Fijian health organizations and institutions will function more effectively and have increased availability and quality of materials and health promotion resources.
4. Fijian communities will have increased access to health services because of new or improved networking with health/youth institutions or other communities.

Assignment description aside, there are a few things that I'm hoping to work on while I'm in Fiji.  I have several years of environmental and construction experience and I love working with my hands.  I want any opportunity to build things and be actively involved in physical projects.  Being trained on the process of building wells and rainwater collection systems for clean water, composting latrines for environmentally-friendly human waste disposal and other similar projects would be a compelling challenge for me.  I have been gathering information about home gardening for small and beginning farmers, and I’m in the process of learning best practices for growing one’s own food.  I would be interested in a community garden or family garden project and nutrition education within my community.  Last, and I'm kicking myself because I forgot to add this to my aspirational statement, I wouldn't mind working in a school with elementary students for hygiene education. 

Oh, and I purchased the Survivor Fiji season (Season 14) on iTunes.  I absolutely know my experience won't be like this, but just getting to see the scenery is so exciting- I'm getting the chills just watching!